In the Supreme Court’s last big abortion case, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, cited a single amicus brief out of 50 and drew a stinging rebuke from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for invoking that brief’s “antiabortion shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence.” The brief’s author hopes once again to persuade Kennedy and a court majority in another abortion battle during the new term.
The last case was Gonzales v. Carhart, in which a 5-4 court in 2007 upheld Congress’ Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act despite its lack of an exception for those abortions needed to protect the health of the mother. The decision essentially overruled the 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion ban and reaffirmed the need for a “health of the mother” exception.
